Killer whales !

2018 05-16 SB Channel

Five Bigg’s killer whales and 50 long-beaked common dolphins were seen today. (Bigg’s killer whales were formerly known as north Pacific transient Orca’s). The day started out sunny and calm then got a little breezy around noon. It is always a great day when we see Orca’s.

On our way out of Santa Barbara Harbor a spread out group of dolphins was seen fairly close to shore. They were feeding in small packs of 5 or 6 as they have been every morning for the past week. After some nice looks at these feeding dolphins, Captain Dave resumed his course towards the western end of beautiful Santa Cruz Island where we had tremendous sightings yesterday.

Not more than 8 miles offshore Dave’s plan for the trip took a turn as a pod of very tall black dorsal fins marked the location of a feeding pod containing 5 killer whales. There was some blood in the water with bits and pieces here and there, but not enough to positively identify what was for breakfast. The pod consisted of one large male, two adult females and two juveniles. As often happens with this particular pod, especially after a successful hunt, they demonstrated a wide variety of behaviors: yail slaps, lob-tailing, side swimming with pectoral fin slapping, very close visits to the Condor Express and several close, full-body breaches.

Dave finished the excursion with a quick and informative tour around the Carpinteria offshore oil rigs and then we returned home.

You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express